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Van Do

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Sally Picot

Sally Picot

Van Robertson came to New Zealand 13 years ago via the United States after her family had migrated from Vietnam.

She started composing music and songs in 2017, and learned about the folk tales of the man on the moon when she started researching Vietnamese folk tales. The song she composed was based on the story of Chú Cuội, a woodcutter who married a beautiful woman and was later drawn up into the moon by a banyan tree, forever on the moon wondering how to get back to earth. She performed her song with the children of one of her friends Tee Tuyet, and Rosa Chow. Her song is titled: He Sits Above on the Moon.

Van says: I enjoy creating music that fits the mood I’m trying to convey in my songs. The Moon Festival isn’t something that was ever celebrated in my Vietnamese family growing up, at least not at much as the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. But after learning about the celebration of the Moon in mid-August within the Vietnamese culture, I have a deeper connection to my roots and a larger appreciation for the moon. I love that in Vietnam, it’s a celebration of children within the family construct. During this celebration, Vietnamese parents are expected to spend time with their children to make up for lost time during the rest of the year. To me, the celebration of the Moon means a celebration of the parental bond to their children.

Being in New Zealand, I am separated from my family in California and from a large Vietnamese community to which I used to belong in California. Celebrating the Moon in mid-August is a new found way for me to keep that connection with the Vietnamese culture.

I can celebrate it with others in the Vietnamese community here in New Zealand. This celebration along with the celebration of the Lunar New Year will help me keep that cultural connection and develop a solid identity and sense of purpose in life.

Van teaches music theory on the piano in Auckland. If any adult wishes to learn music theory from scratch, they can contact her at vanptdo@gmail.com to make arrangements.

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